Lindsey Graham, R.I.P.

Last Saturday evening we lost a solid, hardworking Senator,

a staunch conservative, and a true patriot; U.S. Senator 

Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suddenly passed away. 

Just two days after his 71st birthday and a day after returning 

from an official an official visit to Kiev, Ukraine, Graham 

died from what was reported as a "brief and sudden illness"

in his home. Graham's colleagues on both sides of the aisle in 

the Senate respected and admired him greatly for, among other

things, reaching and working across party lines on many issues,

including assisting Afghan refugees. Graham was a senator who

understood the United States' role in the world.

Graham was born in Central, South Carolina, the son of parents 

who operated a restaurant, a liquor store, and a pool hall. He was

the first member of his family to attend college, where he joined 

the Reserve Officer Training Corps. When Graham was twenty 

his parents died, and he took over the upbringing of his much 

younger sister Darline, who was 13 at the time. The service 

allowed Graham to attend the University of South Carolina

in Columbia so he could be Darline's legal guardian.

Graham graduated with a BA in psychology in 1977, earning a

Juris Doctor from his university's law school in 1981.

Upon graduation, he was commissioned as an officer in the 

JAG Corps (Judge Advocate General Corps) in the United

States Air Force in 1982 and began active duty straightaway.

Graham worked his way up to the rank of Colonel, serving 

in the Air National Guard and later the Air Force Reserve.

In 2014 he received a Bronze Star for meritorious service as

a senior legal adviser to the Air Force in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His legal training and experience made him a good choice to be

on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A neoconservative, Graham was derisively called a "moderate

Republican" by the Tea Party. He called himself a "fairly conser-

vative Republican" and a "Reagan Republican" with "a twang of

moderation" and an "independent streak". But just when 

conservatives in the GOP were ready to write Graham off as a

RINO (Republican in Name Only) he would assert his conservative

leanings on a particular issue and quell the harsh criticism aimed at 

him --- his staunchly pro-life stance on abortion being one such 

instance, where he sponsored the Pain-Capable Unborn Child 

Protection Act, which bans abortion after 20 weeks of gestation

on a nation-wide basis, making exceptions to save the life of the 

mother, pregnancy through rape or incest. 

Graham also received awards from national animal protection

organizations for, among other things, supporting the end of the 

slaughter of horses, particularly that done for commercial purposes.

He also worked to ban shipping horses to slaughter facilities in 

other countries. 

Graham always supported the maintenance of the United States' 

military capabilities in order for our country to be able to defend

herself as well as to fulfill its responsibilities as an ally to nations,

especially those under threat from hostile neighboring countries

i.e. Israel and the existential threats from Iran and various terrorist

groups allied with Iran. 

Sen. Graham worked to preserve the United States' exceptionalism

in every way it is exceptional. His work is now finished, and he 

is rightfully honored as a faithful public servant and advocate for 

the well-being of our country and we, her people. Requiescat in pace,

Senator. Thank you for all you have done.

MEM

Unusual Justice

Well, former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge 

Hannah Dugan finally received her sentence from the

Federal Court. To recap, Dugan was found guilty of 

one felony count for obstructing federal immigration

agents. After a jury found her guilty in December 2025,

she resigned from the bench. The charges stemmed 

from an April 2005 incident where the erstwhile judge

had a confrontation with Immigration and Customs

Enforcement (ICE) agents who were waiting to arrest

a defendant outside Dugan's courtroom, then directed 

the individual and his lawyer out of a private exit in

the jury room, a room only jurors, bailiffs, and the judge

are permitted to be in at any and all times in order to 

help the defendant to avoid capture. 

Dugan's defense team attempted to overturn the guilty

verdict by arguing that ICE proceedings are not covered

by the relevant federal obstruction statutes, but U.S. 

District Judge Lynn Adelman, one of the most liberal

federal judges in the country, officially denied the motion.

Under a barrage of threats of impeachment from Republican

legislators, Dugan resigned from the bench on the Milwaukee

County Circuit court in January 2026. Dugan faced a maximum

sentence of five years in prison. However, because she has no 

prior criminal history, her legal team requested a sentence of

time served, as she was already placed in federal custody for 

a brief time. Team Dugan also cited the severe professional and 

personal consequences that Dugan already endured. 

Federal prosecutors have suggested, though, that the legal guide-

lines indicated a prison sentence of 15 to 21 months.

Ah, but lo and behold! The former county judge was 

sentenced to receiving a $5,000 fine, no time behind bars,

and no probation. 

That's it.

That's all. 

Judge Adelman said that despite federal sentencing guidelines

calling for incarceration, "For several reasons, prison is not 

necessary to satisfy the statutory purposes for sentencing,"

making this statement from the bench. But again, let's refer 

to the charges that brought the former Judge Dugan to 

Federal Court. 

The former judge attempted to obstruct a pending proceeding

before the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS),

the defendant being an alien here illegally to begin with, then 

being charged with assault and battery on two people as well.

If this criminal were to have gotten away with fleeing Ice and the 

FBI, who knows what mayhem he may have committed against

innocent law-abiding citizens? Or whatever other crimes against

anyone? 

Judge Dugan was never a supporter of President Trump's immigration

reform, resulting in tighter laws regarding entering our country 

illegally, and she was thought to have acted in the manner which she 

did being out of sorts with Trump's reforms. Thankfully agents were

able to capture and arrest the fleeing thug in front of moving traffic.

At the sentencing hearing, Judge Adelman found that Dugan had

abused her position as an official holding public trust, and that 

the conviction in this case makes the point "affirm(ing) that no one 

is above the law," 

But with the astonishingly light sentence, and the strong likelihood 

of some big-monied lefty or a left-wing political organization coming

forth to pay Dugan's fine, and Dugan not even receiving parole let alone

a prison sentence, how is the conviction, then, being paired with the 

super-light sentence meted out, affirming Judge Adelman's statement?

And here's food for thought: what if the case was about, say, one of 

the participants in the January 6, 2021 ruckus at the Capitol, and the

judge hearing the case did for the defendant(s) what Dugan did for the 

defendant in the case she was going to hear? And the judge brought up 

on the same charges? Would the judge hearing the case sentence the 

other judge be anywhere as lenient in sentencing the J6 defendant(s)?

And the presiding judge was a strong left-winger like Judge Adelman?

The Peasant thinks it would be a different story altogether, wouldn't 

you, my sharp readers? Just wait 'til you get two paragraphs further 

down!

This episode put the law enforcement agents and the public at risk.

Doesn't this merit a stronger sentence for Judge Dugan? 

As it stands, Hannah Dugan can no longer be a judge in any court

because of her record as a convicted felon. But she says that she will

look for a different job in public service. Methinks the ex-judge has

a misbegotten notion of what public service and a public servant is.

A person in that position would not take any action which would place

law enforcement people and the public at large in peril, while making

it all the more difficult for the former to function. 

Finally, there is the ol' Liberal Double Standard: the law is not applied 

equally and fairly to people of certain political persuasions in too many

cases. Here, local conservative talk show host Vicki McKenna said on

her show when the sentence came down that Dugan was given the 

ridiculously light sentence by a judge with a left-bent just like her

because, well, she's a member of The Club, as McKenna terms it. 

The Club is basically the Liberal Establishment, and its members 

look after each other, doing things like running interference for them

and covering for them. And how do they treat conservatives? 

They clobber them! They throw the book at them! They apply

a completely different standard! And if the public is adversely affected,

who cares? They're just a bunch of peasants after all!

Folks, it's time to give Lady Justice back her scales of Justice minus the

imbalancing weight attached to them. And it's long past time we elected

truly impartial judges to helm our courts, as well as government 

officials who will nominate other such judges. Let's close The Club 

for good!

MEM

Race Preferences Aren't Preferred So Much Anymore

The age of miracles has not yet passed! The U.S. Supreme Court's

2023 ruling against racial preferences is becoming a landmark 

ruling carrying immense consequences for many people.

On June 18 the infamously left-wing Wisconsin Supreme Court

ruled unanimously (!) that a state program that issued scholarships

based on race violates the U.S. Constitution, and the lefties are 

climbing the walls and crossing the ceilings all over the country.

I saw in the Wall Street Journal (weekend 6/20-6/21) opinion section

that Justice Annette Ziegler wrote the majority opinion for the court

that the Constitution requires "that every person 'must be treated

based on his or her experiences as an individual --- not on the basis 

of race,'" and that the state cannot "use as a factor in affording 

educational opportunities among its citizens."

The liberal majority on my home state's top court are still suffering

a combination of shock, horror, and conniptions in reaction to the 

surprise ruling. This case was brought by the Wisconsin Institute 

for Law and Liberty (WILL) against a 1985 Wisconsin law that

reserved need-based scholarships via a grant program for "Black

American," "American Indian," "Hispanic", and a sprinkling of 

Southeast Asian undergraduate students in Wisconsin's private 

and technical colleges. 

Earlier this month Iowa's supreme court ruled that a scholarship 

program reserved for black University of Iowa students studying 

physical sciences was "Impracticable" under the SFFA (Students 

For Fair Admissions vs. Harvard College) ruling (2023). Given this 

trend, it would behoove state governments to repeal these grant

programs and end the discrimination brought about by them or 

else the courts will. Either way, this type of discrimination will 

soon be gone and good riddance.

MEM

Happy Semisesquicentennial (250th Birthday) USA!

Our great and grand country has made a lot of progress,

from starting out as thirteen colonies under the English

crown, fighting their better-armed and more battle-tested

parent from across the sea, entering a war that they were

not supposed to win, then starting a streak of accomplish-

ments --- none of which they were supposed to make 

either --- to become a sovereign, independent nation in 

its own right; a great military power, a financial giant

(Creating a free market to replace mercantilism, also

being at one time the world's largest creditor, among 

other things), a leader in technology, also in medicine,

in magnanimity and generosity (our country helped its 

defeated enemies to rebuild their countries after both  

world wars; the Marshall Plan famously rebuilt much

of Europe, both enemy and allied nations in the wake

of WWII), and in doing all these things becoming the

beacon of hope, freedom, and possibility to the world. 

And let's not forget putting astronauts on the moon!

This partial list of accomplishments demonstrate the 

uniqueness and the exceptionalism of our United States,

all built upon a foundation of the American "Can do!"

spirit. Our country has beaten the odds and the naysayers

many, many times to go on to make these feats happen.

May the United States of America always be the place

to turn to in times of difficulty, to emulate as a model 

of what a nation can be, and a nation of which we 

Americans can be proud and to joyfully proclaim our 

gratitude for all that we are, all that we have, and all

that we have been blessed with throughout our 250 years

and counting! 

The Peasant wishes to give his birthday greetings and 

thanks for God's continued blessings to our nation, and 

to have another 250 years in this world! Glory, love and 

honor from a most grateful Peasant With His Pitchfork!

MEM

And the First-Ever Trillionaire is ... Elon Musk!

It has finally come to pass; the first trillionaire in the history 

of the world has just been recognized and acknowledged. 

It was not that many years ago that it was a very big deal 

when a millionaire achieved his billionaire milestone,

and not many more years earlier when someone became a

millionaire was that a reason to stop the presses. But at long 

last someone has achieved a sensational, astounding, 

earth-shaking, mind-boggling feat that many for years thought

was both out of reach and out of the realm of possibility:

billionaire and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk ascended to the 

peak on June 12.

Musk became the history-maker on the strength of the IPO

of his company, SpaceX, which began trading on the NASDAQ

at $150 per share, giving the firm an almost $2 trillion market 

cap. Forbes Magazine, which has been the chronicler of the rise

and fall of fortunes across generations of families, industries, 

and nations, estimates that the IPO raised Musk's fortune to

$1.1 trillion, just after his new worth rose to $982 billion on

Thursday June 11 when SpaceX priced the IPO at $135 per share,

thus declaring Musk the world's first trillionaire. 

Most of the Musk fortune is "on paper", which is to say that said 

worth is not easily liquid, able to convert into cash. Musk owns

4.8 billion shares of SpaceX, presently worth $715 billion, and 

has another 350 million stock options worth $50 billion which 

gives him a 38% stake in the company.

Musk made his debut on Forbes' yearly World's Billionaires list 

in 2012, Musk then having an estimated $2 billion fortune. 

From this mark, showing Musk to be the 634th-richest person 

in the world, he took a mere nine years to rocket to the top spot

as the world's wealthiest person as Tesla's shares shot upward,

Tesla being Musk's automobile manufacturing company.

Such a feat can only happen in a free market economy. In this kind

of economy there are less fetters applied by the state in the forms of 

regulations and taxes and a greater understanding of how these things

factor into the ability of the economy to grow and create careers with

many job opportunities for people willing to learn and apply new skills

and to work at jobs which with said requirements will match the very

skills learned. 

As for the employees of Elon Musk, his building his incredible 

gigantic business holdings, made possible only by virtue 

of his revenue and profits generated in the process has made many 

of them wealthy themselves; some were made millionaires and 

a few were made billionaires. And the demand for the products 

Elon Musk's businesses supply to his customers make a connection

which benefits both customers and Musk's companies; the customers 

get high-quality products, i.e Tesla automobiles, while Musk and his

employees get a steadily-growing flow of revenue from which they

derive and receive considerable income as their reward for providing

aforementioned high-quality products to a public that desires them.

This is how the free market works, and why it is superior to any and 

all other markets in the world.

In a socialist economy, in fascist economies and in communist 

economies people cannot go into business for themselves and build

large and extremely profitable companies like Elon Musk built.

Any and all businesses would be subjected to stringent regulations 

and exorbitant taxation, the former to bring the entrepreneurs'  

businesses under greater control of the state while the latter siphons 

great sums of revenue into the coffers of the government. If any of 

the business owners don't pay up, or if they complain about the 

crushing regulations and taxes imposed on them, the state grabs their 

businesses and imprisons their owners; in communist-run countries  

they simply grab the businesses anyway, as private ownership and 

enterprise is absolutely forbidden. And the only ones in these woeful

places with any significant money are the government elites, 

including a few apparatchiks (high-ranking officials and senior 

bureaucrats in the government). About quality of products made

(whenever any are made at all), forget it. Slipshod-made junk,

snapped up by a public not given any meaningful choices in 

the marketplaces but lots of said junk and lots more empty store 

shelves.

In summation, free market (or capitalist) economies encourage 

creation; in the other kinds of economies expropriating money and 

property is the order of the day --- every day. The former builds; 

the latter destroys. And Elon Musk is definitely a builder.

Congratulations Mr. Musk! You are a business and financial pioneer

soon to have many following you to the financial heights once

thought impossible to reach. Only in a free market is this possible!

Capitalism has made more people financially secure and more,

having made a middle-class and a wealthy class, with people in the

lower levels of financial status able to thus climb up to the middle-

class and those in the middle-class (and some from the lower classes)

able to reach the wealthy class and to stretch that category upward.

Let's hear it for Elon Musk and for economic freedom!

MEM

The Confiscators Are Digging In

More Democrats are getting behind the confiscation of wealth,

and Senator Elizabeth Warren must be dancing in the streets of

Washington --- especially with the news that California wants a 

piece of the action too. The very left-leaning state is preparing 

to vote in November on whether to expropriate (snatch, actually)

5% of the state's billionaires' assets, supposedly a one-time only

measure as federal transfers dissolve (so California's Democrats

say; take their word with a grain of salt!). The same story is of

course in motion in Congress, with Sen. Warren (D-MA) 

leading the charge with her plan to stick a 2% tax on all house-

hold wealth above $50 million and a 1% surtax on fortunes 

over $1 billion. These awful ideas are to fund the many entitle-

ment programs that California has to offer which the state's 

taxpayers are vehemently against being made to pay for.

It's easier to sell these schemes when the check for all this

is presented to the wealthy Californians; that's why so many

of them have packed up and left California and many more 

are soon to follow.

It must be noted, however, that confiscating billionaires' 

money is not at all a serious financial plan; wealth taxes 

have been tried in Europe and were a bust, because they 

were proven costly and unworkable. The U.S. Constitution

will be a bulwark to block their implementation here in our 

country, much to the chagrin of Sen. Warren and her chums.

Meanwhile, not only wealthy people are fleeing California,

but middle-class folk are following suit. California has 

already lost one congressional district because of the 

unrelenting taxation driving Californians out; this is 

something that the Golden State has never before experienced.

At the rate things are going, California will lose many more 

people and some more districts, and the left-wing confiscators' 

zeal will fade along with California's tax base when they 

wonder how and why this happened.

MEM

Kimmel Kicks the Working Class

President Trump recently nominated U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin

(R-OK) to replace the fired Kristi Noem to be the secretary of the

Department of Homeland Security, and Mullin was confirmed 

forthwith. Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, helming a 

failing show falling ratings and all, snidely remarked that 

"We have a plumber now protecting us from terrorism." 

Mullin's background features his having built a successful 

plumbing business. This illustrates his skill, leadership, and good

sense, three necessary things a good manager of a government 

bureaucracy needs to have any chance for success. However, 

this makes no never-mind to the snarky, snobbish, and hypocritical

fifth-rate comic and ardent left-winger Kimmel; like much of the

Left these days, Kimmel has little if any regard for the roll-up-one's

-sleeves and pitch in blue collar workers. He seems to have a cold 

contempt for these hard-working folks. 

Kimmel's background? A college dropout who makes his living 

firing political darts at conservatives, daring to call it comedy.

But he thinks he's superior to Mullin and others like him.

Many Americans make a good, honest, respectable living repairing

and/or building things for people and are worthy of respect and 

admiration. Your appreciative Peasant isn't just saying this to grab 

some glory for himself, as I once had a business of my own as a

handyman for hire. People across the country are fed up with the

Jimmy Kimmels in entertainment putting them down for being 

what they are and are showing their discontent and righteous 

anger by watching other offerings on TV or perhaps engaging 

in other activities altogether, and this is reflected in Kimmel's

ratings dwindling down to nothing.

Kimmel doesn't deserve any better, and neither do others like him.

MEM